At June 1 anti-war conference
Activists share lessons, forge bold plans
By Gery Armsby
New York
A standing-room-only crowd of more than 600 people attended
a June 1 anti-war conference sponsored by the International
ANSWER Coalition at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.
The gathering provided activists with education, information
and resources on the current U.S. war drive. They also
deliberated over anti-war strategy and produced bold plans for
actions in opposition to U.S. repression and war stretching
into the early months of 2003.
Highlights included a moving series of presentations
conveying the inspirational struggle of the Palestinian people
under U.S.-backed Israeli occupation and a call to action in
response to recently announced changes that grant the FBI new,
Cointelpro-like powers.
ANSWER, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism,
was also a main organizer of the largest-ever U.S.
demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause in
Washington, D.C., and San Francisco on April 20.
Participation at the conference was very broad. It included
people of many different experiences, geographic regions,
nationalities, genders and abilities; those new to the anti-war
struggle as well as seasoned activists; elders and youths, gay
and straight.
Jennifer Wager of IFCO/Pastors for Peace welcomed the crowd
and chaired an opening panel that launched the day-long program
of talks, workshops, educational presentations and activist
strategy sessions by emphasizing popular struggles around the
world targeted by U.S. military, economic and political
aggression.
Challenge to new FBI powers
International Action Center Co-Director Larry Holmes
introduced components of an action plan proposed to the
conference by the ANSWER steering committee, including a call
for a march on the FBI and Justice Department headquarters in
Washington on June 29 and a campaign to hold independent
hearings on U.S.-backed Israeli war crimes in Palestine.
"John Ashcroft announced a few days ago that he was removing
the so-called restrictions put on the FBI during the mid-70s
when there was an exposure of the Counter-Intelligence Program
that came to be known as Cointelpro," Holmes reported.
"We've got to remind people what Cointelpro was about. It
wasn't just about spying. It was a war on the Black movement,
the Puerto Rican movement, the Native peoples' movement, the
radical movement, the anti-war movement, the solidarity
movement ... it involved not only infiltration and
surveillance, but frame-ups, assassinations, murders."
Holmes then implored the crowd; "We have to respond to this
as a movement."
Representatives from the Partnership for Civil Justice Legal
Defense and Education Fund presented further analysis of the
newly expanded FBI powers.
Attorney Carl Messineo explained that the FBI refers
benignly to its activities as surfing the Web while "what they
really are talking about is a massive data mining operation
involving huge, Borg-like computers" capable of compiling and
maintaining detailed dossiers on anyone.
"On June 29," PCJ attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard promised,
"we will stand in front of the FBI, which is conveniently
across the street from the Justice Department in Washington,
DC, and we will tell them, hell no to Cointelpro."
Monica Moorehead, a national coordinator of Millions for
Mumia who spoke at a morning workshop addressing the Patriot
Act and civil rights, welcomed the ANSWER proposals.
Moorehead expressed her impression that "the action plan and
momentum for June 29 coming out of this conference will have a
significant effect, especially given recent announcements
concerning the FBI's unrestricted powers. That demonstration in
Washington can serve both as a response to these developments
and help elevate the plight of political prisoners who are also
victims of the In-Justice Department."
Labor against the war
Two co-conveners of New York City Labor Against the War
(NYCLAW) addressed the conference.
Mailhandlers Local 300 President Larry Adams explained,
"Like you, NYCLAW sees 9/11 as a pretext to unfold an overall
global agenda of pillage and plunder of the world that's
particularly aimed at destroying the national liberation
movements of oppressed peoples all over the world and to
promote reaction in this country."
Brenda Stokely, president of AFSCME District Council 1707,
pointed to the importance of the gathering "because it is
essential in any movement for freedom and justice to build a
principled united front against this government and against all
of those that are bent on continuing to exploit and oppress
people throughout the world as well as in this country."
Adams also helped lead a workshop where labor activists
strategized about how to increase labor participation in
anti-war activities.
Other workshops covered topics such as corporate
globalization and U.S. economic intervention, international
movements opposed to U.S. military intervention, and building
grassroots opposition to the war on campuses and in
communities. A workshop on U.S. strategy in the Middle East
drew over 120 people to hear experts and discuss in depth the
latest developments in Palestine, Iraq and Sudan. A
presentation on Afghanistan by Workers World editor Deirdre
Griswold sparked a lively discussion about the history of that
country.
Eyewitness Palestine
Conference participants were shown a short video of the
recent ANSWER coalition delegation to occupied Palestine. The
dramatic footage illustrated the daily crisis for Palestinian
people living under the Israeli-imposed apartheid system of
racist violence, discrimination, restrictions and
checkpoints.
Delegation members described the coalition's plans for
organizing Independent Commission of Inquiry hearings to
investigate U.S.-backed Israeli war crimes in Palestine,
including evidence they gathered while in Gaza and the West
Bank.
Elias Rashmawi of the Free Palestine Alliance, himself a
Palestinian, followed their presentations with an eloquent
appeal to the activists to consider the meaning of
Palestine's--or any oppressed nation's--struggle for
self-determination.
He told the rapt audience, "To understand Palestine you can
hit the books and read the details of history, which is
important, extremely important. But let me break it down for
you. There is a Palestine that has a people that fight and
struggle to maintain their humanity. And this Palestine is one
that you can imagine best as you can imagine your own
life."
An afternoon session was dedicated to strategizing in
smaller groups about how to continue building the anti-war
movement. Activists used these sessions to share lessons from
recent organizing efforts. They discussed action proposals,
including an international day of protests Oct. 19 and a march
on Washington on the Gulf War's 12th anniversary, Jan. 18,
2003.
Sixty people joined a concurrent session to plan for the
independent hearings on war crimes against Palestine.
A final session, chaired by International Action Center
Co-Director Brian Becker, was dedicated to summing up the day's
work and hearing from international guests from Palestine,
Haiti, Venezuela and the Philippines as well as representatives
from an array of progressive struggles.
Noted author Leslie Feinberg drew connections between the
fight for lesbian, gay, bi and trans liberation and the need
for strong resistance to the Bush administration's war
drive.
Why they came
WW spoke with many activists who attended the
conference.
Janyce, 20, an activist from Los Angeles, said, "This was
awesome. It makes me want to go home and work twice as hard and
start an ANSWER chapter in Riverside [Calif.]." Janyce had
organized for the April 20 demonstration in San Francisco,
filling a 50-passenger bus in the space of two days.
Schuyler, a high-school sophomore from New Jersey, took time
off from his studies and part-time job to attend the
conference. He said, "I really learned a lot, especially about
Cuba, and I really appreciated the African American union
leader, Brenda Stokely, who was very inspiring in her
presentation linking the war against Afghan istan with poverty
and social issues here at home."
Jamal, 27, learned about the conference at the April 20
demonstration in Washington. He volunteered to help with
conference security. "There was a group of 10 to12 Zionists
counter-demonstrating outside," Jamal said. "We talked to our
people and asked them to ignore them. It was a weak showing of
their side and their ignorance.
"I thought the conference itself was extremely positive. We
covered a lot of the issues that are going on around the world,
in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, and even here in
the U.S.," Jamal concluded.
Judi Cheng, a Workers World Party member who staffed an
ANSWER outreach table, remarked: "Everyone got a lot out of it
and left with a better sense of what direction the progressive
movement has to take in the coming months."
'An outstanding step'
Several ANSWER steering committee members also shared their
impressions and reflections on the conference.
Elias Rashmawi told WW, "The conference, in my opinion, was
an outstanding step toward cementing international solidarity
and principled positions for an anti-imperialist force,
including forces for social justice and self-determination, on
the road to transforming the peace and justice movement in the
United States to reflect the conditions of people victimized by
globalization in the U.S. and everywhere else.
"We, the Palestinian people, salute the International Action
Center for anchoring the ANSWER coalition, as it convened
perhaps one of the most crucial and significant gatherings to
propel the struggle of the Palestinian people forward.
"We are also gratified and humbled by the principled
positions of the constituent member organizations of the ANSWER
coalition, for their historic stand and solidarity with the
Palestinian cause during both the April 20 mobilization and the
conference of June 1."
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard found the large attendance to be
"evidence of a very powerful movement of people in the U. S.
who are forming together to fight the tide of government
repression.
"The conference was significant in the breadth and diversity
of people who attended and who are actively engaged in mounting
an aggressive challenge to any attempts by Ashcroft and FBI
Director Mueller to silence or quiet growing dissent against
the Bush administration's corporate global war drive."
"I was struck by the high numbers of relatively new,
relatively young activists at this kind of a gathering," said
Sarah Sloan, a youth organizer for the International Action
Center. "And it was great how much people appreciated the
anti-imperialist message that resounded throughout the
conference."
"The fact that 600 people from all over the country would
come together to plan the next nine months of anti-war
activities astounded me," said Chuck Kaufman, co-director of
Nicaragua Network. "The level of enthusiasm and support for the
program proposed by the ANSWER steering committee indicates
that we have a strong anti-war, anti-racist coalition made up
of many diverse forces and that we will continue to grow."
Reprinted from the June 13, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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